Professor Ben Ford recently traveled to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to participate in the Underwater Cultural Heritage Conference organized by the Saudi Arabia Heritage Commission. Ford was one of 15 international presenters during the one-day conference (January 15). Other presenters came from Slovenia, Egypt, Bulgaria, South Korea, Mexico, Argentina, Australia, and elsewhere.
The conference was part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to draw on international expertise to strengthen its management of underwater archaeological sites.
Ford’s presentation, “Building Maritime Archaeology Research Capacity through Education and Outreach,” drew on his decade of Great Lakes citizen science archaeology experience. The presentation argued that recreational divers and avocational archaeologists can be mustered to record underwater archaeological sites and to disseminate this information more broadly than individual professional researchers.